That night Ron was wandering the halls on prefect duty, yawning as he went. Honestly, he never found anyone out of bed; he didn't see why they even needed more than one prefect out at a time. But he shuddered to think of what his mother would do if he handed in his badge, so he patrolled without complaint. He turned a corner and saw something moving in the darkness. He ignited his wand tip and walked faster down the hall to find Malfoy out on duty also.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Weasley. What a coincidence," He said. His eyes seemed to come out of their iciness and his expression was twisted with malice. "It seems to me that you've gotten in my way with Hermione."
"Um, yeah. That was my intention. She doesn't want anything to do with a rat like you, so why don't you back off?" Ron growled back.
"Weasley, I'll have Hermione, whether you like it or not, so if you like the current arrangement of your face, then you'd let me have her," Malfoy said. Ron spotted his hand slowly inching towards his pocket.
"Don't even try it, Malfoy," Ron said and quickly whipped out his own wand.
"Or you'll what, hit me with a petty curse again? I'm much more serious than that," Malfoy growled, and before Ron could stop him, he'd drawn his own wand and pointed it at Ron's heart.
"Stupefy!" Malfoy yelled and Ron ducked out of the way of the red jet of light aimed at his chest.
"Densaugeo!" Ron bellowed. Malfoy blocked the spell with a weird wave of his wand.
"Give up Weasley, you can't defeat me!" He said hatefully. "Petrificus Totalis!"
Ron's limbs sprang together. He teetered for a moment and then fell over backwards. Malfoy slowly walked over and stood above him. "Now I'm going to finish you, nice and slow." He raised his wand high above his head and grinning evilly.
"What in the bloody hell is going on here?" A sharp voice rang down the hall and Malfoy started. In an instant his wand was in his back pocket and he was fumbling his words to Professor Amante. She muttered the counter curse and Ron stood up shakily. He had never seen her this mad.
"Into my office, both of you, NOW!" she said and swept away. Ron followed with his head hung low. They entered and found it quite dark until she lit the candles with a wave of her wand.
"Explain yourselves," she said.
Both of them simply stood stuttering until Amante finally got tired of it. "I would never expect such behavior from two prefects. Dueling! And in the middle of the night!"
"Well we were on duty, Professor," Ron said, trying to lessen the punishment,
"I'll be checking that. In the meantime, twenty points from Slytherin and Gryffindor, and you both will serve detention together. Now, I'll take you both back to your dormitories, since I don't trust you to go there yourselves."
The next day at breakfast, Amante walked up to Ron at the Gryffindor table. "You'll serve your detention tonight in my office, be there at eight," she said and strode back up to the teacher's table.
"You got detention, for what?" Hermione asked, staring at Ron, apparently aghast.
"I was dueling with Malfoy last night," he said guiltily.
"You were-wait..this doesn't have anything to do with me, does it?" she asked suspiciously.
"Uh, no," Ron said, his eyes downcast.
"Oh don't lie to me Ron! You were dueling over me, weren't you?" she asked, her voice becoming shriller with every word.
"Well Hermione it's the only way to keep him away from you!" he said angrily.
"Ron, I'm not some prize that you can win in a duel! I can't believe that you'd do that, I thought you were so much better than that," Hermione shrieked. She swung her legs off of the bench, grabbed her bag, and marched out of the Great Hall haughtily.
"I'm already being punished by Amante, why does she have to get mad too?' Ron asked, frustrated.
Ron hung his head and spotted a blonde head heading for the doors of the hall. "Oh great, now Malfoy's going to go and sweet talk her. Harry, I don't know how I'm going to win her over now?"
"I don't know," Harry said hopelessly.